PENDLETON, Ore. (AP) — A man who skipped out on a court hearing on a hate crime charge in 2012 has been rearrested in Umatilla County after disappearing for five years.
The East Oregonian reported Tuesday that 28-year-old Joshua Edward Teel has been in the Umatilla County Jail since last month on $100,000 bail.
The newspaper says Teel was part of a white supremacist group in Pendleton and was facing hate crime charges for assaulting a black man at a park.
Teel had pleaded not guilty to charges of intimidation, harassment, robbery, tampering with evidence, criminal mischief and riot in the August 2012 case.
Authorities said Teel was involved with European Kindred, a hate group formed by two Oregon inmates in 1988.
Defense attorney Robert Klahn didn’t immediately return a call from the AP.